Kicking off the summer parties at St. Rose

And this year, the St. Rose Parish Festival continues to update its tried-and-true success formula as it opens its weekend of festivities to the community.

“We like to keep the traditions, but we don’t want them to become stale and outdated, so we like to update and try some new things,” said Mary Paton of the long-running festival.

Included in that new formula is a rock climbing wall, as well as the introduction of pizza to the already-popular food line-up.

“Well, we traded out our obstacle course for the rock climbing wall to give the older kids a change of pace,” Paton said.

“And our pizza, prepared by 20th Century Lanes, will be on sale by the slice. We will still have our beef and noodle dinners because they’re popular, along with the crowd favorites of barbecued chicken dinners, brats, hot dogs and cheeseburgers,” Paton said.

The smell that will fill the air will be roasted almonds, that will also be new to this year’s festival. “And, we’ll have free blood pressure screenings this year, and fingerprinting for the kids,” Paton said. Also, they’re going with canned beer rather than draft in hopes of cutting back on waste.

But the festival will keep its crowd favorites. There will still be great bands, rides, and lots of raffles offering lots of prizes, including a $5,000 prize.

“Our people like to put this on like a great party in the backyard. It’s our chance to open our grounds to the community and invite everyone to come out and see what’s so special about us. Once you come, you’ll be back,” Paton said.